PUNKS 16 - Nuevo Catecismo Catolico - 1993-1995. The Goo Records Years. 2LP Gatefold.
I sincerely hope that you like this new label release. Both albums have been carefully remastered for this release, and the beautifully done gatefold sleeve with printed inner bags contains the lyrics of both albums for the first time, as well as many unpublished photos.
At the end of the 80s, the furious Basque punk (which came on the scene later than punk from Madrid and Barcelona, but had a much greater impact and repercussion), post-Rock Radikal Vasco, ended up in the hands of more or less mediocre bands, cast in the same mold of aesthetic poverty, lyrical and musical complacency, disastrous alcohol-induced shows. In the midst of all this tackyness La Perrera burst onto the scene in 1987.
Critics loved them from the start, while audiences took longer to accept them (it was too rock for the punkers and definitely too punk for the metalheads, and just infernal noise for the rest), but they gradually brought together a congregation of their own fans.
La Perrera comes from a legacy that is more American than British, and apart from adapting punk references that nobody used at the time and few even knew (try listing the bands that covered Sonic Reducer by the Dead Boys before they did, and how many did it after), they also showed a special fondness for classic Hard-Rock, Glam and Proto-Punk (think Thin Lizzy, Rory Gallagher, Alice Cooper, Dictators, Stooges). More than anything they were music fans, with a wide range of musical knowledge, they vindicated minor bands with the refinement of collectors. Their aesthetic, both vintage and mythomaniac in nature, was not strained, but was conscious. Their lyrics, which were very personal, were alienated odes to individualism and self-assertiveness, and were an exciting change from both the illiteracy that singing in English supposed and the well-worn clichés that were already devoid of conviction. And of course, the devastating production, with almost no pauses between songs, marked a turning point for anyone who attended their shows. All these aspects were accented, expanded or refined once La Perrera split-up and brothers Arturo and Gonzalo Ibáñez along with Julen Atorrasagasti and Jorge Reboredo (both ex-Barrakos) and Arturo Zumalabe (ex-Hondakin) founded Nuevo Catecismo Católico, and since then they’ve been integral parts of the punk & rocknroll underground.
It would be excessive to ascribe sole authorship and responsibility to NCC for a scene that consumes different styles of punk Hard-Rock or Heavy Metal without prejudice and that is interested in studying the history of Rocknroll. Australian and American bands, and later Scandinavian ones, delved into this prejudice-free approach and logically achieved greater success with it. However, NCC were already around, and they did it first. Their Self Titled and En Llamas albums and impressive live shows -- they haven’t had a single bad show in the 20 some years of existence -- are the primary reason for the creation and existence of a list of bands so long it would be impossible to count and for the transformation of the entire Spanish underground rock scene.
The relentless passing of time (an intense obsession of Gonzalo, the main writer of the band’s lyrics), doesn't alter the first two Nuevo Catecismo Catolico albums, but places them where they deserve to be, they are CLASSICS. They are two excellent, exceptional, extraordinary punk-rock records, regardless of the context (Basque, Spanish, Worldwide). Those of us who went out of our minds when they were released are still feeling that explosion in our stomachs, turning to chills and hair standing on end when listening to them today. There may be other ways to go back twenty years (at least for as long as the song lasts), but none will be as fun as this.
-Daniel F. Marco
